Tag Archives: War at any cost

Aug 13 2025

Outline 3, FBI Offered Chris Steele $1 Million to Substantiate Dossier Before they Submitted It as Evidence to FISA Court


Posted originally on CTH on August 12, 2025 | Sundance

I have been asked to recap some of my research into cited formats of what I believe to be criminal conduct, with specific statutes against them. This is the third.

DNI Tulsi Gabbard is not a lawyer. While I may be wrong, I find Tulsi Gabbard to be a patriot. Mrs. Gabbard is focused on providing evidence to the DOJ that essentially forces action. I support Tulsi Gabbard’s efforts.

In 2022, the legal case brought by prosecutor John Durham against Chris Steele’s primary sub source, Igor Danchenko, was predicated on the notion that Christopher Steele’s primary source for his dossier willfully and intentionally lied to the FBI. Therefore, according to Durham’s legal theory, Danchenko was guilty of purposefully misleading FBI investigators assigned to the Trump-Russia/”Crossfire Hurricane” investigation.

Every intellectually honest person knew the FBI were not duped by Danchenko, and later records proved Danchenko told them the Steele dossier was full of fabricated nonsense. However, to keep the revelation of the dossier presented “as nonsense” hidden, the FBI then hired Danchenko as a confidential human source, technically shielding him from being questioned or exposed.

The FBI decision to hire Danchenko was to keep the fraudulent Steele Dossier useful for their Trump targeting operation. After all, the Trump surveillance warrants were dependent on it.

The pretending by Durham highlighted two things: (1) Durham was protecting the corrupt DOJ and FBI institutions by not investigating any government action; and yet, (2) Durham was simultaneously exposing corrupt FBI and DOJ action through his Danchenko court filings.

FBI supervisory analyst Brian Auten testified in court that Hillary Clinton’s contracted opposition researcher, Christopher Steele – hired by Fusion GPS to dig up dirt on Donald Trump, was offered up to $1 million by the FBI in early October 2016, if Chris Steele could prove the claims within the Trump dirt dossier he authored.

Steele was never paid the money, because he could not prove the claims within the dossier, nor would he originally give up the name of the primary source for the information, Igor Danchenko.

However, despite the FBI knowing the dossier could not be proved, validated or verified, later that same month, October 21, 2016, they used the dossier as evidence to support a Title-1 FISA surveillance warrant against former Trump campaign aide, Carter Page.

The FBI offered Chris Steele $1 million to ‘prove it.’  Chris Steele could not ‘prove it.’  The FBI used the dossier anyway to get the warrant.

The details provided by Durham proved the researched outline we delivered in 2018.

The FBI knew the Steele dossier was junk, yet they used it in lieu of the mandatory ‘Woods File’ to seek an all-inclusive secret search warrant against the Trump campaign.  Carter Page was a tool for the fraudulent search warrant, the FBI knew Carter Page from previous work he had done for them as an informant.  However, to get the warrant they needed to accuse Page of being an asset of a foreign government – so they did.  The Steele Dossier was used as manufactured evidence to support the FISA application.

The FBI goal was to create a legal mechanism putting everyone in/around Donald Trump under surveillance.  This was the “insurance policy” as described by FBI agent Peter Strzok.

The FBI had been conducting unlawful political surveillance against Donald Trump throughout the 2016 campaign, the FISA warrant was used as the legal basis to make the previous and future surveillance legal.

The FBI knew the dossier was junk, the FBI didn’t care – they needed it to create a fraudulent search warrant.

The FBI knew Carter Page was not a Russian asset, the FBI didn’t care – they needed him to get to Trump.

The FBI goal was always to conduct political surveillance against Donald Trump.

(Via CNN) – Shortly before the 2016 election, the FBI offered retired British spy Christopher Steele “up to $1 million” to prove the explosive allegations in his dossier about Donald Trump, a senior FBI analyst testified Tuesday.

The cash offer was made during an October 2016 meeting between Steele and several top FBI officials who were trying to corroborate Steele’s claims that the Trump campaign was colluding with Russia to win the election.

FBI supervisory analyst Brian Auten testified that Steele never got the money because he could not “prove the allegations.”

Auten also said Steele refused to provide the names of any of his sources during that meeting, and that Steele didn’t give the FBI anything during that meeting that corroborated the claims in his explosive dossier.

Auten was testifying at the criminal trial of Igor Danchenko, a primary source for Steele’s dossier, who is being prosecuted by special counsel John Durham. Danchenko has pleaded not guilty to lying to the FBI.

CNN previously reported that the FBI reimbursed some expenses for Steele, who had been an FBI informant.

Durham, a Trump-era prosecutor who is looking for misconduct in the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation, has used some of the proceedings Tuesday to criticize the FBI’s handling of some of the early steps in the Russia probe. Durham handled many of the in-court arguments on Tuesday and personally questioned Auten on the witness stand – a rare move for a special counsel and former US attorney. (read more)

Offering $1 million to a source to provide evidence is not a decision made by a supervisory special agent.

The authorization to spend up to $1 million for evidence is a decision made by the Director or Deputy Director of the FBI.

October 2016: FBI Director James Comey, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe

Follow the timeline:

Steele offered $1 million to prove the dossier in early October 2016.  He cannot.

FBI uses dossier in late October for a FISA warrant against Trump campaign.

Dossier source Igor Danchenko interviewed by FBI in January 2017. Tells FBI dossier is junk.

The FBI then interviews Carter Page five times, March 9, 10, 16, 30 and 31, 2017.

The FBI then hired Danchenko in March 2017, just before renewing the FISA they now know is based on junk.

April 2, 2017, the FBI renew the FISA warrant for the 2nd time.

May 2017 Robert Mueller appointed to cover up all of the DOJ/FBI corruption that existed in the Trump targeting.

June 2017 Robert Mueller interviews Danchenko, then Mueller renews the FISA.

February 2019, Bill Barr enters as Attorney General.

April 2019 Robert Mueller completes investigation.

May 2019, Bill Barr appoints Durham just to look into things.  Immediately then begs Trump not to declassify any documents.  Trump writes executive order giving Bill Barr ability to review and declassify documents.

October 2020, Bill Barr officially (and quietly), makes John Durham a special counsel.  We don’t find out until December (after the Nov. election).

October 2020, FBI drops Igor Danchenko as paid informant.

Put it all together and you see the continuum.

(1) Donald Trump was being targeted by a corrupt DOJ and FBI.  (2) Robert Mueller was installed in May 2017 to cover up the targeting.  (3) When Mueller is nearing his completion, Bill Barr steps in to mitigate institutional damage from 1 and 2. (4) Barr maintains damage control and installs Durham. (5) Durham takes over the coverup operation from October 2020 (Danchenko safe to exit) through today.

Main Justice kept a bag over Danchenko until they needed a scapegoat, created by Durham, to sell a narrative that Main Justice was duped.

John Durham charged Danchenko (working outside govt) with lying to the FBI while simultaneously avoiding drawing attention to the FBI/DOJ officials (inside govt) who knew Danchenko was lying and were willfully blind to it in order to continue attacking and investigating President Donald Trump.

James Comey, Robert Mueller, Bill Barr, John Durham, the Mar-a-Lago raid…  it’s all one long continuum of the same targeting and coverup operation.

Bill Barr was the Bondo application, and John Durham was the spray paint.

The entire system is corrupt.

Aug 13 2025

Kash Patel Sends John Solomon a Prior Whistleblower Report to Highlight on Sean Hannity


FBI Director Kash Patel sends John Solomon a declassified whistleblower report, showing how a prior House Intelligence Committee staffer blew the whistle on then HPSCI ranking member Adam Schiff, who was giving the staff instructions to leak fabricated intelligence reports on Trump-Russia to smear President Donald Trump in 2017 and 2018.

According to the release {SEE HERE}, the FBI eventually received and investigated the whistleblower claims; then in 2023, sent the information to the Merrick Garland/Lisa Monaco DOJ, who took no action because the claim was now beyond the statute of limitations.

Read those dates carefully, because what this report from Kash Patel and John Solomon actually outlines is something we have all been very frustrated with.

As Solomon now notes, … “The alleged leaks fall outside the statute of limitations for prosecution on most legal theories, but the revelations nevertheless come at a sensitive time for Schiff“..  At the time of the Whistleblower report, the information to the FBI and DOJ would have been evidence that could have prosecuted Adam Schiff.  However, now the information is limited to just providing I-told-you-so’s.

There are a couple of really frustrating aspects to this, and the pattern is transparently obvious.

The FBI and DOJ from 2017 to 2023, under both Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s administration, played the silo game of control of evidence.  They did nothing with the evidence until the statute of limitations had tolled, which then provides Main Justice with the justification for doing nothing.

In 2025, understanding the public is insanely frustrated with the lack of accountability, the pretending game is now deployed by the FBI under Kash Patel, through John Solomon, to the broadcast venue of Sean Hannity.  At the end of this clickbait circle-jerk is nothing.  Again, no accountability, but a bunch of controlled information operatives saying, “Well, let’s see what the DOJ does with this now.”

A pox on all their houses.

There is no doubt in my mind this is a clear example of why the DC system uses special counsels (Mueller, Durham, et al) purposefully to create “ongoing investigations” as capture nets for information/evidence control.

“It’s under investigation, and we don’t speak about ongoing investigations.”

In real time, from 2019 to 2020, I was providing this type of evidence from within the silo system to John Durham and Bill Aldenberg who were designated information managers.

In my naiveté’, as I initially opened these doors, I thought some form of accountability would be possible, because the evidence was direct, irrefutable and without denial.  However, once Aldenberg and Durham clearly said they could only act on evidence they ‘discovered’ themselves, and they could not act on evidence provided by “others” because that would make the “evidence political,” I quickly realized this was all going to amount to nothing.

Now, we are looking in hindsight at evidence from inside the system, provided to these investigators by participants inside the system, yet they also did nothing with it at the time it held value.

So, here’s the basic construct of how the DC game is played.

Evidence delivered from outside DC cannot be used by those who are charged with investigating corruption within DC. Evidence delivered from inside DC, goes into the system of “ongoing investigations” (special counsels) until its usefulness is exhausted by the clock-ticking.  If the risk of accountability remains, the special counsels are extended until that accountability clock has expired.

Once the accountability clock has expired, if another party comes along (Kash) and releases that evidence (Solomon), the value only exists insofar as it generates clickbait income (Just News), column inches and punditry talking points (Sean Hannity) for the DC proletariat.

The Patel’s, Bondi’s, Solomon’s and Hannity’s then play this game of pretend. Packaging the corruption evidence as accountability hopium and selling it to the addicted battered conservatives.

Insert vote. Pull lever. Get hopium pellet.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Who is continuing to buy this game?

FBI Director Kash Patel sends John Solomon a declassified whistleblower report, showing how a prior House Intelligence Committee staffer blew the whistle on then HPSCI ranking member Adam Schiff, who was giving the staff instructions to leak fabricated intelligence reports on Trump-Russia to smear President Donald Trump in 2017 and 2018.

According to the release {SEE HERE}, the FBI eventually received and investigated the whistleblower claims; then in 2023, sent the information to the Merrick Garland/Lisa Monaco DOJ, who took no action because the claim was now beyond the statute of limitations.

Read those dates carefully, because what this report from Kash Patel and John Solomon actually outlines is something we have all been very frustrated with.

As Solomon now notes, … “The alleged leaks fall outside the statute of limitations for prosecution on most legal theories, but the revelations nevertheless come at a sensitive time for Schiff“..  At the time of the Whistleblower report, the information to the FBI and DOJ would have been evidence that could have prosecuted Adam Schiff.  However, now the information is limited to just providing I-told-you-so’s.

There are a couple of really frustrating aspects to this, and the pattern is transparently obvious.

The FBI and DOJ from 2017 to 2023, under both Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s administration, played the silo game of control of evidence.  They did nothing with the evidence until the statute of limitations had tolled, which then provides Main Justice with the justification for doing nothing.

In 2025, understanding the public is insanely frustrated with the lack of accountability, the pretending game is now deployed by the FBI under Kash Patel, through John Solomon, to the broadcast venue of Sean Hannity.  At the end of this clickbait circle-jerk is nothing.  Again, no accountability, but a bunch of controlled information operatives saying, “Well, let’s see what the DOJ does with this now.”

A pox on all their houses.

There is no doubt in my mind this is a clear example of why the DC system uses special counsels (Mueller, Durham, et al) purposefully to create “ongoing investigations” as capture nets for information/evidence control.

“It’s under investigation, and we don’t speak about ongoing investigations.”

In real time, from 2019 to 2020, I was providing this type of evidence from within the silo system to John Durham and Bill Aldenberg who were designated information managers.

In my naiveté’, as I initially opened these doors, I thought some form of accountability would be possible, because the evidence was direct, irrefutable and without denial.  However, once Aldenberg and Durham clearly said they could only act on evidence they ‘discovered’ themselves, and they could not act on evidence provided by “others” because that would make the “evidence political,” I quickly realized this was all going to amount to nothing.

Now, we are looking in hindsight at evidence from inside the system, provided to these investigators by participants inside the system, yet they also did nothing with it at the time it held value.

So, here’s the basic construct of how the DC game is played.

Evidence delivered from outside DC cannot be used by those who are charged with investigating corruption within DC. Evidence delivered from inside DC, goes into the system of “ongoing investigations” (special counsels) until its usefulness is exhausted by the clock-ticking.  If the risk of accountability remains, the special counsels are extended until that accountability clock has expired.

Once the accountability clock has expired, if another party comes along (Kash) and releases that evidence (Solomon), the value only exists insofar as it generates clickbait income (Just News), column inches and punditry talking points (Sean Hannity) for the DC proletariat.

The Patel’s, Bondi’s, Solomon’s and Hannity’s then play this game of pretend. Packaging the corruption evidence as accountability hopium and selling it to the addicted battered conservatives.

Insert vote. Pull lever. Get hopium pellet.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Who is continuing to buy this game?

August 12, 2025 | Sundance

Aug 11 2025

EU, NATO & Zelensky Plotting Against Trump


Posted originally on Aug 10, 2025 by Martin Armstrong |

I am getting an increasing number of questions about how in the world our model forecasts war in advance and targets specific weeks like August 18th, 2025, a year in advance, and then Trump picks that Friday 15th for his peace conference with Putin in Alaska.  You NEVER make such a forecast using a single model. There is a battery of models, and in those arrays, there are 72 models. That top line we call the aggregate because that is the sum of all turning models that align for that target – it is NEVER just one. The computer is monitoring the entire world. You can see all the reports that Socrates is writing every day. There are not enough analysts in the world to cover so many instruments and statistics. On December 3rd, 2013, I formally posted that the tensions would erupt in Ukraine.

Ukraine Maybe The Most Important Country To Watch

Posted Dec 3, 2013 by Martin Armstrong

“We will have the Cycle of War ready shortly updating this development as this cycle turns next year as well and we can see the rising tensions are brewing everywhere. Ukraine may become the focal point with Russia smelling the blood of a weak Europe and United States. This is like the barbarians smelling the weakness of Rome and knew it was time to strike. Russia is all about restoring its national honor. The USA has weakened itself like Rome by fiscal mismanagement.”

1962 Cuban Missle Crisis

This is a model specificly between Russia and the United States. It starts with the 1962 target of the Cuban Missile Crisis set in motion by Nikita Khrushchev, who was overthrown on October 14, 1964, (1964.786) during a Politburo coup orchestrated by his political opponents, including Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin, because of his reckless desire to spread communism to the world (We Will Bury You). That was 1.978 years from the Cuban Missile Crisis (721.97 days, 103.13 weeks, or about 24 months later).

May 2 2014 Odessa Trade Unions House

Here you can see this separate model targeted 2014.408, which was May 4th, 2014. This was the Odessa Genocide when Ukrainians killed Russians on the street and then burned them alive, and then ran into the Trade Union Building for shelter. This was what began the separation movement by the Russians in the Donbas because they were being hunted like animals, and the Western press had no problem with the resumption of Nazi Ethnic Cleansing because they were Russian. Neocons dominate the EU with personal hatred of Russians from generations before. They love to imprison people who just have words against migrants. Still, they have no problem advocating genocide of an entire ethnicity, following in the footsteps of Hitler all over again.

  • May 2: Deadly clashes in Odessa between pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian groups resulted in over 40 deaths, mainly in a building fire.
  • May 11: Pro-Russian separatists held disputed independence referendums in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
  • May 25: Presidential elections were held in Ukraine, with Petro Poroshenko winning decisively. Separatist-controlled areas largely boycotted or disrupted voting.
ECM Ukraine 8.6 R

Direct talks between Ukraine and Russia took place in Istanbul, Türkiye, on May 15, 2025, precisely on the turning point, marking the first potential face-to-face negotiations since 2022. However, there is conflicting information about whether the meeting occurred as planned. My sources informed me that both Russian and Ukrainian delegations were present in Istanbul, with the Russian delegation led by Vladimir Medinsky and the Ukrainian delegation headed by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov. The next major turning point is June 13th, 2026.

June 2026 Arrays

We are now starting to see a Panic Cycle forming at this next Major Target of June 2026. Keep in mind that this ECM is NOT included in the arrays. The more separate models we have, the better the correlation, and we can then rely on these forecasts with more confidence.

Russia also now occupies Kherson, Donetsk, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia, in the Eastern region, which Putin may ask for. So far, Ukraine’s leadership has opposed ceding any territory to Russia. Zelenskyy wrote on X, “Ukraine is not afraid of meetings and expects the same brave approach from the Russian side. It is time we ended the war.”

8 10 25 Ukraine_European_leaders_counter_Russian_cease_fire_plan_ahead_of_Trump

The NY Post wrote: “European officials rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin’s calls that Ukraine give up territories annexed during the war — instead demanding Saturday an immediate ceasefire from Moscow and NATO membership for Kyiv.” This merely confirms my sources that warn the EU, NATO, and Zelensky want war and they are conspiring to create a false flag to invoke Article % to embarrass Trump into sending troops to Ukraine to annihilate Russia completely. They want to conquer Russia entirely, and they seek to steal all its wealth so that the EU, desperate to survive, will become the next Roman Empire, subordinating the United States once again to a mere colony.

Text to Trump Assassociate

I do have contact with people close to Trump who I at least trust are NOT Neocons, which I cannot say for everyone surrounding him. Will they get Trump to listen? Probably not. The frustrating part is I tend to get called in when they F-up everything that I warned would take place, and then they expect me to be like Merlin the Sorcerer, wave my magic wand, and it’s all gone.

Merkel_Minsk_Buy_Time_to Prepare for wart

If the EU had honored the peace deal that they signed and allowed the Donbas to vote and separate as took place in Chechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, which both split along ethnic lines, this war would NEVER have taken place. The EU has conspired from day one to sacrifice the Ukrainian people on the NEOCON altar of hatred for Russians who are no longer communists, and their hated leader, Stalin, was not even a Russian. He was from Georgia.

NATO Article 5

It was all the cross-treaties that compelled nations to join World War I. NATO was established to result in the very same mistake that caused that war, and they are licking their lips, drooling over the thought of finally defeating and obliterating their enemy Russia, even though communism fell all by itself.

NATO’s intervention in Bosnia in 1995 was part of Operation Deliberate Force, a sustained air campaign conducted from August 30 to September 20, 1995, to pressure Bosnian Serb forces to comply with UN resolutions and end the siege of Sarajevo. NATO has routinely sought to bomb Serbia because it has been pro-Russian.

NATO entered Kosovo on June 12th, 1999 (1999.446), following the end of the Kosovo War. This marked the beginning of the Kosovo Force (KFOR), a NATO-led pretend international peacekeeping mission. NATO’s Air Campaign (March–June 1999) was conducted over a 78-day (1999.660) bombing campaign (Operation Allied Force) against Yugoslavia (then including Serbia and Montenegro) to stop the repression of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. They had no problem bombing Serbs because they were pro-Russia. This is why NATO never came to the rescue of the Russians in the Donbas when it was the Ukrainians carrying out the same genocide as Hitler, because the target was Russians—the first 51.6-year wave from the start of NATO ended on November 14th, 2000. Since there was grave concern that NATO was intervening in the Yugoslav War against pro-Russians when there were no NATO members, this forced the EU to establish a 60,000-strong rapid reaction force for peacekeeping and crisis management, marking a step toward greater European defense autonomy outside of NATO, so the US could not object.

NATO ECM A

NATO pushed to get Finland and Sweden, which had always been neutral, to surrender that neutrality and join NATO, thereby placing the Swedes under Article 5 to supply troops for NATO at the expense of their people and nation. NATO is using the precedent of Bosnia and Kosovo, where there was no NATO membership, to argue that they can now invade any country they desire using a humanitarian excuse.

ALL of my sources are saying that no matter what Trump agrees to with Putin, they will not honor it. Letting Russia retain the Donbas is what the dishonest EU signed as the Minsk Agreement and NEVER intended to allow peace at any time. The EU is crumbling from within. It will fragment and is being starkly divided as many see it as a UNDEMOCRATIC dictatorship where the Parliament is elected, but he has NO POWER even to make laws. It is a facade to pretend the people have a say when they do not.

EU Shirt Exit

The EU will split and may become a relic of history and a failed globalist-dictatorship experiment by 2030. When it was formed, the promise was no dictatorship without 100% consensus. But Hungary is fighting back against this pro-WWIII drive and for the migrants. The EU seeks to strip Hungary of its vote to ensure the EU will remain a dictatorship. They say you can vote your way into Socialism, but you must shoot your way out. In this case, the German people were not even allowed to vote to join the Euro, as some others. Kohl did not allow the people to vote in any referendum to join the Eurozone. Other countries that did not allow their people to vote in a referendum specifically on adopting the euro are:

Aug 11 2025

Sunday Talks – NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, Discusses Upcoming Trump-Putin Summit


Posted originally on CTH on August 10, 2025 | Sundance

The ever-dramatic Margaret Brennan is in full pearl-clutching mode as she questions NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, about the upcoming meeting between horrible President Trump and even more horrible President Putin.  It is simply unfathomable to allow a U.S. President to create a strategic reset with a Russian President.

As Brennan acts out the role, she highlights how it is unimaginable, terrible, and just a no good bad thing. Horrid.

NATO Secretary Rutte is quite happy with the new funds flowing into the NATO alliance as organized by President Trump. Rutte sits atop a new cache of taxpayer funded treasure for the alliance to organize; from his perspective Trump is gold, and Brennan gnashes her teeth throughout.

Funnily, Brennan attempts to spin a Trump-Putin agreement for a ceasefire with Trump triggering World War III by getting the beginning of a peace deal over the finish line.  If Trump creates peace, the world will explode or something.  WATCH: 

Rutte missed the opportunity to ask Mrs Brennan if she can hear herself.  lol

[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, who joins us from The Hague in the Netherlands. Welcome back to Face The Nation.

NATO SECRETARY GENERAL MARK RUTTE: Margaret, it’s good to be back on the show. Good morning.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Good morning. Well, Mr. Secretary General, big picture here; is Russia’s Vladimir Putin still a direct threat to the Western alliance, or is he showing some signs of dropping his aggression?

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: He is still the main threat to the Western alliance, there’s no doubt. And I think it is very good that President Trump will test him, and we’ll see how far he can get on Friday, starting this process. He basically broke the deadlock, President Trump, in February, starting the dialogue with Putin. I think that was crucial. We had a great NATO Summit under his leadership, committing to 5% defense spending, so that there is a clear signal to our main threat, which is Russia, that we are serious. And then he opened the floodgates, three weeks ago, of American lethal weapons to be delivered into Ukraine, coordinated by NATO and, of course, the secondary sanctions. He started them with putting them on India, which is one of the biggest buyers of Russian oil and gas.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, that is certainly the groundwork being laid. The concern is, of course, as you know, among some critics, that in this conference room in Alaska, we’re going to see a 1938 moment. Where, in an attempt to immediately halt a war, the groundwork is laid for an even bigger conflict because of concessions that are made. Are you comfortable with Ukraine being excluded from these negotiations on Friday?

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: What will happen on Friday is testing Putin by President Trump. And I commend him for the fact that he organized this meeting. I think it is important. And, obviously, when it comes to peace talks, the cease-fire and what happens after that on territories, on security guarantees for Ukraine, Ukraine will have to be, and will be, involved. But on Friday, it is important to see how serious Putin is. And the only one who can do that is President Trump. So, it’s really crucial that a meeting takes place. It will not be the final say on this. There will not be the final deal on this. Of course, Ukraine will have to be involved in Europe, but it is important to start the next phase of this process, putting pressure on the Russians exactly as President Trump has been doing over the last six months.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You’ve been on these calls with President Trump, and I know that he briefed you on what Envoy Witkoff discussed with Vladimir Putin this week. Can you tell us, is Russia still demanding that Ukraine drop its bid for NATO membership?

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Well, obviously, I cannot go into all the details, that would be strange. But let me assure you the following, that we are all on the same page; the Americans, the Europeans and Ukraine, that when it comes to the geo-strategic position of Ukraine in the future, when it comes to whatever is the size of the Ukrainian military when it comes to NATO’s posture on the eastern flank in countries like Latvia and Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Poland, that Putin has absolutely no say on any of these issues.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, you’ve said in the past there need to be strong security guarantees for Ukraine. Who is going to provide that if it’s not NATO?

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Obviously, this is a discussion which is going on for some months now. We all pray for the moment when the ceasefire is there, and hopefully a successful peace deal is done, but at least a ceasefire. And the Europeans, led by the French and the Brits and NATO, has been involved in those talks, but clearly led by Macron of France and Starmer, the Prime Minister of United Kingdom, in close cooperation with the US, are discussing, post-the-ceasefire, post-the-peace-deal, how do we make sure that the security guarantees are in place? And this will be important also post-next-Friday, if this would lead the Friday session to more serious peace talks, because when it comes to territory, it will always go hand in hand with the security guarantees for Ukraine.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, I understand that there were NATO representatives listening in that meeting with Vice President Vance and European national security advisors yesterday. NATO has been coordinating the delivery of weapons purchased by NATO members to help out Ukraine. About a billion in military aid, I understand, has been facilitated from the US to Ukraine. Are there plans that those weapons deliveries will continue, regardless of what happens on Friday?

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Absolutely, they will continue. So, we had the first two packages committed by the Dutch and then by the Scandinavians. I expect further announcements in the coming days and weeks. And this is crucial. Basically, President Trump, as I said, opening the floodgates of lethal military aid into Ukraine again. Paid by the Europeans and Canada, which I think is only logical and fair. And this process has started, of course, on top of what the Europeans are already doing, including investing in the defense industrial base in Ukraine. And, as you said, NATO is coordinating all of this through our commands in Wiesbaden, making sure that Ukraine has what it needs to stay in the fight and be in the best possible position when it comes to negotiations on a ceasefire, slash a peace deal.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And that’s not up for negotiation on Friday?

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: My absolute conviction on Friday is that this is President Trump making sure that Putin is serious, and if he is not, then it will stop there. If he is serious, then from Friday onwards, the process will continue. Ukraine getting involved, the Europeans being involved. And the US is already coordinating, like you said, last night in London, with Foreign Minister Lammy of the United Kingdom, senior officials from NATO and European countries in the European Commission, with the Vice President, to make sure that we are all on the same page. Putin will never, ever be able to divide the alliance. The biggest foreign policy success of President Trump is the NATO Summit. A United NATO, a united alliance, and Putin will never get in between us.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, we have to take President Trump at his word, and on Friday, when he spoke in front of the cameras, he said there will be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both Ukraine and Russia. I mean, you know, Ukraine does not hold Russian land, and Russia has about 20% of Ukraine. What is he talking about?

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Clearly, what will be on the table when real peace talks, slash the ceasefire discussion, will take place is this issue of, on the one hand, security guarantees, on the other hand, how to deal with the factual situation that the Russians are holding, at this moment, Ukrainian territory. Crucially important here is that when it comes to this holding of Ukrainian territory, that there might be a factual situation that they are doing this, but that we can never accept that in a legal sense, in,, as this is called, a de jure sense, as you know, the US hosted embassies with Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia between 1940 and 1991 acknowledging that the Soviet Union was controlling those territories, but never accepting, in a legal sense, in a de jure sense, that fact. So all these issues will be on the table, hopefully, post-Friday, if Putin is serious, and Putin then has to commit to sit down with Zelensky. He cannot do this through President Trump. In the end, it has to be, as President Trump has stated himself, a three-way conversation, at least, with the Europeans heavily involved.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, do I understand what you’re saying here correctly? When you are talking about legal recognition versus de facto, are you saying that, basically, the world is preparing to allow Russia to hold on to Crimea, the Donbas, the eastern part of Ukraine, but then just not legally recognize it?

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: No. What I’m saying is that, in the end, the issue of the fact that the Russians are controlling, at this moment, factually, a part of Ukraine has to be on the table, that any discussion going forward from there will be with Ukrainians deciding on what they want to do in terms —

MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, because that sounds like you’re saying they don’t have to withdraw their troops.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Obviously, they have to, but factually, they are controlling a part of Ukraine at this moment, as you said. And as Ukrainians have said before, if a ceasefire discussion takes place as soon as possible, and hopefully negotiations on a peace deal, there will be the debate on how to take that forward, starting at the present line of contact. But it is crucial to know that when it comes to the future geopolitical situation of Ukraine, their sovereignty, there will be no infringement on that, and that it’s always Ukraine itself deciding on what they want to do or not want to do in terms of a peace deal.

MARGARET BRENNAN: All right, Secretary Rutte, thank you for your time.

[END TRANSCRIPT]

Aug 11 2025

Sunday Talks – Ukrainian MP Slams ‘Nonsense’ Proposal To Swap Ukrainian Territory For Russian-Occupied Territory


Posted originally on CTH on August 10, 2025 | Sundance

According to CBS, President Trump is freezing out the CIA in advance of the meeting between himself and Vladimir Putin in Alaska next Friday.  The general auspices are that President Trump has instructed his intelligence team not to discuss the details of the meeting with the 5-eyes countries (U.K, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. CIA); however, the coded message is smartly for the administration to be careful with the CIA.

From this proactive move, we can infer that at least a few people around Trump (Witkoff, Rubio) understand how the USIC will work to throw a wrench in any geopolitical reset.  As the former Chair of the SSCI, Rubio holds a great deal of value in negotiating this issue.

The friction point becomes clear when you listen to Ukrainian MP Yehor Cherniev criticize a proposal to exchange Ukrainian territory that is currently occupied by Russian forces.  WATCH:

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Aug 10 2025

Nobody Puts Zelensky in a Corner!


Posted originally on Rumble on Bright Bart News Network on: August, 9, 2025

Aug 10 2025

BRAT: “The Deal For Zelensky Is Kyiv Or No Kyiv, It’s Not A Peace Deal, It’s The Survival Of Ukraine”


Posted originally on Rumble By Bannon’s War Room on: August 9, 2025

Aug 10 2025

THAYER: “Nagasaki Is So Important, It Reverberates With The Problems And Concerns We Have Today”


Posted originally on Rumble By Bannon’s War Room on: August 9, 2025

Aug 10 2025

Chance of War Increases in Sept, Genius Act War Bonds, Neo Cons Surrounding Trump w/ Martin Armstrong


Posted originally on Aug 10, 2025 by Martin Armstrong |  

Aug 10 2025

Marcus Vetter on War


Posted originally on Aug 10, 2025 by Martin Armstrong |  

A German INTERVIEW of Marcus Vetter on War

Berlin Marcus Armstrong

If you look back today: What has become of Angela Merkel’s statement “We can do this”? Has this vision been fulfilled or has it fractured?

Unfortunately, in my view, today this vision lies completely in ruins. It was the last stand of a truly humanistic approach, one that deeply divided Germany. Those who viewed the statement critically were often unfairly labeled as “right-wing” by those who applauded it. But a societal challenge of such magnitude can only be mastered together, because the truth, as always, lies somewhere in the middle. Both sides had a point, and should have approached the motto “We can do this” with much more prudence and solidarity. Today, we are faced with a social landscape in shambles. A large part of society supports an unprecedented rearmament of Europe. Those who warn against it are often silenced. War rhetoric is now coming from parties that once had a pacifist orientation. The world is upside down and hardly recognizable anymore.

In your films you often talk about reconciliation, identity, and social change. What stories should be told today to rethink integration and social cohesion?

We should tell the same kinds of stories. Stories that show the cycle of violence can be broken. On an individual level, people are still open to such stories and can still be moved by them. At the same time, they are influenced by seemingly convincing arguments – for example, that a Russian war of aggression can only be decided on the battlefield and that one can only respond to it with strength. Other opinions are no longer truly allowed in the media. In my view, this is fundamentally wrong. War itself is the greatest war crime, as Ben Ferencz – once the youngest prosecutor in the Nuremberg Trials – put it. And he was right. In war, there is no morality, no humanity. Truth is the first casualty of any war. Through propaganda slogans we are conditioned to believe that strength is the only answer, because otherwise the enemy will overrun us.

When Hermann Göring was asked in Nuremberg how they had managed to unite all of Germany for a war of aggression, he said: “Of course, the people don’t want war… But… the people can always be driven to the bidding of the leaders. That’s easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and for endangering the country. It works the same in every country.”

It is very hard for me to endure the current developments. We are ready to take increasingly extreme positions. Some want to raze Gaza to the ground and root out evil entirely, others place all the blame solely on Israel and are just as extreme in their rhetoric. There are only a few left who are willing to build bridges.

That is why I have re-edited a trilogy of films I shot in Palestine and Israel between 2008 and 2012, and expanded it with a fourth film about the International Criminal Court. This last one – WAR AND JUSTICE – is a profoundly pacifist film. When people see it, they are often willing to rethink their stance on war.

THE HEART OF JENIN tells the story of Palestinian father Ismael Khatib from Jenin, whose son was killed by Israeli soldiers and who, despite his deep grief, decided to donate his son’s organs to Israeli children as a gesture of peace.

https://www.war-and-justice.de

CINEMA JENIN – THE STORY OF A DREAM tells how hundreds of volunteers from all over the world came to Jenin to join Ismael Khatib – from The Heart of Jenin – in restoring an old cinema that had been closed during the First Intifada. Cinema Jenin opened in the summer of 2011 and was operated as a cinema for 5 years before being demolished in December 2016 and replaced by a shopping mall.

AFTER THE SILENCE tells the story of Israeli Yael Armanet, who lost her husband in a suicide bombing carried out by a Palestinian from Jenin. Inspired by Ismael Khatib’s gesture, she sets out to visit the family of the attacker in Jenin to find answers to what happened. The film was made possible and co-produced by the Palestinian cinema Cinema Jenin.

Trilogie der Hoffnung